The Girl Behind the Guitar
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and eighty-five: It's been a few weeks now that he's been hanging out with her... maybe it wasn't just a fluke.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 27th cycle. Now cycle 28!_

_**A/N:** Okay, so at the moment I'm slowly starting to plot out the next maybe three or so cycles, which is at least 63 new stories, and before I do this I wanted to ask you guys if you had anything you'd wish to see written, suggestions... Also, what would really help, if you have ideas for concepts for sets (like I've done the alphabet (twice), colors, sins and virtues, episode titles, etc), let me hear 'em! (via private message, if possible!) Thanks :) - **UPDATE! I'm going to be planning the next five cycles, which will take me through to September. So if you have ideas/wishes/anything, now is the time to speak up! :)**_

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><p><strong>"The Girls Behind The Guitar"<br>Artie/Lucy (OC)  
>Sequel to "Two Guitars &amp; a Song" <strong>

A few weeks had gone by since Artie had sung his duet with Lucy, alone in the Glee room. In the end, he hadn't done it with her in front of the others. She said she wasn't ready, that she needed more time to think about it, and he respected that. So he'd told Mr. Schuester that, due to their break-up, he and Brittany couldn't go up. He had understood, so it had ended there. Still, while the next duo had gone up, he'd stolen a glance toward Lucy, with the band, and she'd given him a discreet thank you/sorry nod. He returned one that promised she shouldn't worry about.

Even if they hadn't done the duet, even if no one had any idea how they could well have been in the presence of one of their future members, Artie and Lucy had continued to meet outside of their respective groups. Now he saw how she'd been in some of his classes all along… something they benefited from as much as they could. They could at the very least count on the alphabet to keep 'Abrams' and 'Collins' nearby.

The more time went by, the more he knew the things he'd felt when they'd done their duet hadn't been the smoke and mirrors of his very fresh break-up with Brittany. Everything he'd thought about her before, now he felt it. Funny girl, daring girl, kind girl…They were just friends, as of yet, and even then he felt like he didn't deserve it, not after everything that had gone down before. More than that… he was waiting. Twice before he'd thought he just had everything figured out. He thought he was going to get to hold on to this great happiness he was feeling, but then he'd trip and hit the ground unable to get back up. He'd been told before, how he'd been a terrible boyfriend. He tried to understand it, how he could feel he was doing just fine, only to discover no one else saw it that way. He knew he had faults; he wasn't pretending he didn't have any… he just wished someone had told him before it was too late.

Lucy was his friend, just friend… and as far as he knew he hadn't screwed that up yet. What if he did though? What if this thing between them went somewhere and…

"Hey, wake up," she snapped her fingers in his face and he blinked. He'd been waiting for her, by the escalators on the mall's main floor, not realizing as time went on, as his mind had taken him for a ride. "Welcome back."

"Sorry," he absently reached to straighten his glasses. "How'd it go?" he asked, back on track. She smiled.

"I got the job," she announced, and he held up his hand to high five her. "Yes, now I get the honor of refilling the cups with Breadsticks," she spoke dramatically. "I might even get to pour water," she nodded, as though to say 'score.'

"And hook up friends with discounts?" he continued her bit of 'aren't we cool?' boasting over the very basic job.

"Yes, I'm good and connected now," she straightened her shirt. "Got dibs on top notch stale Breadsticks."

"Living the life, Lucy Collins," he shook his head and she laughed.

"Hey, so I was thinking…" she started, taking a seat on the bench next to him. He turned to face her. "Would you like to… come by my house tonight? Stay for dinner? My parents will probably want to celebrate my bringing in the big bucks now, and since the whole applying thing was your idea, it only seems fair…" she explained, just shy of joining her hands and turning on the pout. He smirked.

"Sure, that'd be great," he nodded, and she tapped his knees with approval. When her eyes turned back up though, he could see there was another part to this request.

"So there's something I… It's not like I was keeping it from you, it's just not the kind of thing I go mentioning all the time."

"Okay?" he bowed his head, not sure where she was headed. He imagined about a hundred things, but none of them were this one…

"You know I've got a sister," she started, and he nodded; she told him about it being her birthday a week or so before, which had both kept them from getting together the Saturday before and also led to his suggestion that she apply to Breadstix.

"Yeah, younger, right?"

"Stella. She's ten," Lucy confirmed, then paused, almost recollecting. "She loves horses. Her room is just… I call it the 'Equine Shrine,'" she explained, and Artie laughed. "She started riding lessons when she was seven, and she got good, real good, real fast…" she smiled, then almost bit back her lips, crushing the smile. "Then summer before last, she… There was an accident, she fell and she…" She stopped, and now he understood how 'not the kind of thing she went mentioning meant even now it was hard for her to relive with words. She didn't have to go on. Actually, a lot more things made sense to him, about her, probably more than she'd anticipated. She'd never been thrown, in any way, about him and…

"She's in a wheelchair," he completed for her, and she nodded.

"It had nothing to do with… us, being friends, I swear," she had this look in her eyes like she really just needed him to know that.

"I believe you," he promised, and she breathed out. "So you want to go now or should we hang out a bit more, see what you can spend that Breadstix cash on?" he asked, and she laughed, a bit of weight lifted.

"Well I did have my eye on some boots," she nodded.

When t hey left the mall, they headed toward the Collins home. It was easy to see which one it was, once he spotted the ramp outside. Before they went in, he had one question. "Do they know about me? I mean the…"

"The… way you 'covertly' pass notes in class?" she asked innocently.

"You said no one saw me," he frowned, momentarily distracted, but then she got back on track. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I told them about you," she confirmed, then, "Don't read too much into that."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he held out his hands in surrender, and it pushed through a smile to her lips.

"Fine, come on," she opened the door. "Hello?" she called. "Mom, Dad? Stell?"

"Kitchen!" a woman's voice called, and Lucy led him there to find said woman working at a laptop set on the table, surrounded with papers. Later she would explain to Artie how they were redoing her home office, and so the kitchen had been forced to become a back-up office. Lucy cleared her throat and the woman looked up, almost startled until she spotted… "Oh, oh, you must be Artie," she smiled, pushing her glasses on top of her head as she stood.

"What gave it away?" Lucy joked as Mrs. Collins came and shook the boy's hand.

"I'm assuming by the humor that you have some good news?" she told her daughter before turning her attention to their guest. "It's lovely to finally meet you. Lucy's been telli…"

"I got the job!" Lucy cut in with a cough, and her mother was properly deflected.

"Congratulations!" she moved to hug her daughter. "I knew you would."

"Where's Dad and Stellla?"

"He's putting the wallpaper in the office," Mrs. Collins revealed. "And she's in her room. Can you call them both down here, dinner's almost ready. Artie, will you be joining us?" she asked, and even though Lucy had already invited him, he had to check.

"He is," Lucy told her before they went to pass the message on. Mr. Collins had about the same reaction at seeing him that his wife did, right down to his dropping the fact that Lucy had told them about him and the interruption she put in to keep too much from being said. And then they went to get Stella.

He stayed in the hall, but Lucy opened the door, he could already see what she'd said about the décor in the girl's room. He also saw her, lying stomach down on her bed, playing with a couple of plastic horses. She could have been like any other kid right then. From what he could see, where Lucy's hair was a darker shade of red, Stella's a much brighter shade. He watched as Lucy crouched down by the bed, whispering something. Stella kept on playing with her horses for a while, but finally she put them down and she turned herself to get to the chair sitting by her bed. Lucy let her go on her own, though she was standing at the ready if she was needed. He wasn't sure if Lucy had told her about his being there until she turned her head and looked straight at him, looked to Lucy. She said something and her big sister walked on ahead, getting him to go on as well, as they moved to the dining room. Mrs. Collins had set the extra space and sat him next to Lucy.

The dinner was about what they'd expected. Artie was asked questions left and right, and so was Lucy. Left, right, left, right… and then came the middle.

"How'd you get like that?" were the first words Stella spoke to him.

"Stella…" her mother interjected, but Artie had kind of expected it.

"Car accident," he told her. "I was about your age, too," he revealed. She didn't say another word all night. When they were done, waiting for Artie's father to come pick him up, he and Lucy sat outside.

"I don't know what I was thinking," she shook her head, and he could see it in her face; she thought she'd made a mistake.

"You wanted her to have someone," he filled in the blanks for her, and she looked back at him. "I'm not giving up if you're not," he promised, and she smiled.

"Okay… and okay…" she added after a beat.

"I know what one of those is for…" he started, but she clarified.

"Maybe I can give this Glee Club thing a try, too," she explained, and he smiled. "Don't get too excited."

"Right. Sorry."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>**********always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**********


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